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What will I be voting on? Should LUU support UCU strike action?

What is the proposer asking for? 

It is of the utmost importance that students are able to have their say on Union matters, including the matter of supporting striking staff. 

The UCU (University and College Union) have balloted for industrial action, addressing two disputes relating to their continued ‘Four Fights’ campaign to tackle casualisation, workload, fair pay and inequalities in the workplace as well as the USS pension scheme. University staff are over-worked, under-paid and under-valued.

• Staff are facing a 20% real terms pay cut since 2009
• New reports are indicating that over 50% of university staff are showing signs of depression
• Four in ten postgraduate students are ‘at a high risk of suicide’
• Pensions for staff have been cut by £240,000 since 2011, with another 35% cut to guaranteed pensions. 

The working conditions for our staff are our learning conditions. The increase in workload and stagnant pay for staff is implicitly-linked with students’ high tuition fees, extortionate rent prices and inadequate mental and physical health services. Long- term trends of casualisation and marketisation are exposing a mental health crisis amongst staff in higher education. A failure to support staff results in poorer learning conditions for students. Furthermore, the concerns for students’ wellbeing will only continue to intensify without direct industrial action by staff and university conditions improving.

Claims by the University Vice Chancellor that they have already addressed the ‘Four Fights’ are inaccurate. The VC has claimed that this is a national dispute, therefore chosen to abdicate responsibility of representing staff at the University at Universities UK and the Russell Group.

Whilst industrial action is frustrating, action to strike is always the last resort. Our staff have been forced to act following the deterioration of their working conditions. Staff should have the right to fair pay, good working conditions and a secure and dignified retirement. The members of staff who strike understand the significant impact it has on their students, as well as losing out on pay, but are taking action to ensure higher education is a better sector for both students and staff. 

I acknowledge that students' education and experience has suffered as a result of the pandemic. Universities have become businesses that treat students like consumers, charging them extortionate tuition fees and rent. These issues faced by staff impact the learning conditions for students. Staff do not want to take industrial action, and if we do not support them now then these conditions will only continue to deteriorate further. 

The National Union of Students report that 73% of students support the strikes, and across the country other student unions have hosted and passed referendums showing their support. 

The statement released by the LUU Executive Officers on the 17th November 2021 was made without sufficient consultation from students. Students should have their say on their learning conditions. 

Unfortunately, the disputes faced by UCU staff have been long standing. Whilst industrial action for this academic year has already taken place, to pass policy supporting the action taken by UCU the Union would be bound to three years of support for calls for a more democratised and decommodified education system. This policy would also establish a precedent for honouring student voices on their concerns for the marketisation of their education.